Amb. Naresh Chandra

Diplomat

India

Ambassador Naresh Chandra was a former Indian Cabinet secretary and ambassador to the United States. He also served on the Executive Council of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. Beginning in 1956, Chandra served India in many different capacities, including as a member of the Indian Space Commission and the Indian Atomic Energy Commission. He studied mathematics at the prestigious Allahabad University, where he also later taught.

Ambassador Naresh Chandra passed away on July 9, 2017.

Amb. Li Changhe

Diplomat

China

Ambassador Li Changhe is senior advisor and former vice president of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, a nonprofit aimed at promoting academic research and activities in the areas of arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation in order to facilitate international endeavors for world peace and security. He previously served as Chinese ambassador for disarmament affairs. Li has represented China at the UN Conference on Disarmament and has sat on several panels at the UN Regional Workshop for East and Southeast Asia for Strengthening the Capacity of the Media in Advocating and Promoting Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific.

Amb. Ivo H. Daalder

Diplomat

United States

Ambassador Ivo H. Daalder is president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, one of the oldest and most prominent international affairs organizations aiming to influence the discourse on global issues through leadership dialogue, public learning and opinion and policy formation. He previously served as the U.S. permanent representative to NATO, for which he received the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service. Daalder has also served as a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and as associate professor at the School of Public Policy and director of research at the Center for International and Security Studies, both at the University of Maryland.

Daalder is a member of the Global Zero Commission on Nuclear Risk Reduction.

Rt. Hon. Kemal Derviş

Diplomat

Turkey

The Right Honorable Kemal Derviş was a senior fellow in the global economy and development program, and the Edward M. Bernstein scholar at the Brookings Institution. He served as the Institution’s vice president and director of global economy and development. He was an active participant in various European and international networks working to further international cooperation in order to find ways to make globalization a more stable and inclusive process.

From 2005 to 2009, he headed the United Nations Development Programme and also served as the chair of the U.N. Development Group. He held numerous positions with the World Bank from 1977 to 2001, including vice president of the World Bank for the Middle East and vice president for poverty reduction and economic management. After leaving the World Bank and returning to Turkey, Derviş was a member of the Turkish Parliament, minister of economic affairs and active in the Center for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies, a Turkish NGO working on economic and political issues.

Derviş passed away in May 2023.

Amb. Jayantha Dhanapala

Diplomat

Sri Lanka

Ambassador Jayantha Dhanapala was a former United Nations under-secretary-general for disarmament affairs and a former ambassador of Sri Lanka to the United States and to the U.N. He served as chairman of the U.N. University Council, and was the president of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs from 2007 to 2017. He also served as a member of the governing board of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

As a Sri Lankan diplomat, Dhanapala served in London, Beijing, Washington, New Delhi and Geneva, and has represented Sri Lanka at a number of international conferences, serving as chair of several of them, including the historic Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review and Extension Conference of 1995. Dhanapala was also a former director of the U.N. Institute for Disarmament Research. In 2015, Dhanapala became senior special advisor on foreign relations to then-President Maithripala Sirisena.

Dhanapala passed away in May 2023.

Amb. Yuri Dubinin

Diplomat

Russia

Ambassador Yuri Dubinin was a professor of international politics at Moscow State Institute of International Affairs and Moscow International Higher Business School. Prior to that, he was permanent representative of the USSR to the UN and ambassador to the Ukraine, Spain, France and the United States. From 1994 to 1996, he served as Russian deputy foreign minister.

Dubinin received his doctorate from Moscow State Institute of International Relations, where he focused on international politics in reference to Asia and the Pacific region. He was a member of the Oriental Studies Association of Russia and a board member for the U.N. Association of Russia and the Russia-USA Association.

Dubinin passed away on December 20, 2013.

Sec. Lawrence Eagleburger

Diplomat

United States

Secretary Lawrence Eagleburger was an American diplomat, who served in many capacities in the government, most notably as U.S. secretary of state under President George H.W. Bush. He was also a member of the National Security Council; executive assistant to Henry Kissinger at the White House; political advisor and chief of the political section of the U.S. Mission to NATO in Brussels; deputy assistant secretary of defense; deputy assistant to President Richard Nixon for national security affairs; ambassador to Yugoslavia; and assistant secretary of state for European affairs.

Eagleburger passed away on June 4, 2011.

Amb. Rolf Ekeus

Diplomat

Sweden

Ambassador Rolf Ekeus is a Swedish diplomat, chairman emeritus of the board of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, and chairman of the Swedish Pugwash Network. He is also a member of the executive board of the European Leadership Network for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and serves on the board of the Nuclear Threat Initiative. From 1991 to 1997, he was the director of the UN Special Commission in Iraq. In this position, he was responsible for working towards the elimination of infrastructure for nuclear weapons.

Ambassador Ekeus has spent his diplomatic career working on nonproliferation issues. In 1996, he was recognized for his contributions to the field with the Wateler Peace Prize from the Carnegie Foundation. Ambassador Ekeus has also served as Swedish ambassador to the United States and to the Conference on Disarmament, and member of the advisory board on disarmament of the Secretary-General of the United Nations.